What is the Church Planters Lab?
The Church Planters Lab was conceived as a way for The Gathering to help nurture and develop pastors on a continuous basis.
The purpose of the Lab is to develop pastors as planters of new churches/sites - possibly future sites of The Gathering or future churches within the Missouri Conference. Participants will receive both educational training and hands-on experience. I will lead them through a planned curriculum every week, they’ll shadow our ministry leaders, and spend time working on how to develop a new church site, including things like demographic analysis, relationship building, and leadership structure. The Lab is in collaboration with and partially funded by the Missouri United Methodist Foundation and the Missouri Annual Conference.
Meet the Fellows
AARON CARTER
Aaron Carter is coming to us from Simpson United Methodist Church in Austin, TX, where he has been serving as their lead pastor. He graduated from Newman University in Wichita, KS, with a degree in psychology and earned his Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta. His hope is for people to experience transformative encounters with God that assures them of Jesus’ word that they are loved by God as children.
MORGAN GOYMER
Morgan Goymer recently earned her Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC. While in seminary, she was an intern with Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City online ministries. She also earned a bachelor's degree in communications studies with a minor in business from Louisiana State University, focused on rhetoric, exploring how and why people communicate the way that they do. She has had mentors who were church planters and is excited about learning more about church planting while at The Gathering.
